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Thursday, January 7, 2016

ON PARTING WAYS WITH LITERARY AGENTS by Joy McCullough-Carranza

Many stops along
the writing journey are filled with maps and guidebooks and tour guides
clamoring for the writer’s attention. Query Station, ‘The Call’ Street, Debut
Year Blvd…these are well-lit and heavily trafficked.

Some other stations
are necessary to pass through, but for whatever reason, they have nary a
flickering bulb and certainly no tour guides. We rarely talk about being on
submission, for example, or what happens if your editor leaves in the middle of
your series. Another poorly illuminated stop along the writing journey is the
one where writers part ways with their agents.

Here’s the thing
though—Breakup Station is poorly illuminated, but it’s not lightly traveled.
Many, many writers part ways with their agents and return to the query
trenches. Some quickly find another agent and some toil in the trenches for
another long spell. Almost all feel alone, and like they’ve failed in some way.
Because it’s so poorly illuminated, they have no idea how many fellow travelers
are stumbling around this station.

One of the things
I’ve learned along the writing journey is how incredibly comforting it is to
get to know one’s fellow travelers – the other writers who have gone on
submission but not sold their book. The other writers who had to query five
manuscripts before they got an agent. The other writers who parted ways with an
agent.

So I hauled some
floodlights into Breakup Station. I wanted to see who was passing through there—a LOT of
people, it turns out—and for them to see one another.

I created a survey
for writers who had parted ways with an agent and I shared it with a closed
Facebook group of Pitchwars mentors—around 100 people. Those folks in turn
shared it with debut year groups for 2014, 2015, and 2016, and with the MG and YA Binders
groups. I had over 100 survey responses within 24 hours.

If you are in
Breakup Station: YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

So let’s look at
some of the responses to see why writers and agents part ways, and what
happens after they do. (And you guys, I tried super hard to make these into
pretty pie charts, but I deal in words and it would have been simpler for me to
make five actual pies.)

Question: Who initated the breakup?

Agent – 34%

Writer – 66%

Question: If your agent initiated the
breakup, what was the reason? (Check all that apply.)

Agent left the
business – 37%

Agent couldn’t sell
a manuscript – 20%

Agent didn’t want
to represent writer’s next project – 34%

Couldn’t agree on
editorial direction of next project – 7%

Communication
styles – 20%

Personality Clash –
10%

Other – Several of
these responses included an agent switching to another agency and culling her
list in the process, and an agent deciding to focus on a different genre or
category.

QUESTION: If the writer initiated the
breakup, what were the reasons (check all that apply):

Agent couldn’t sell
a previous manuscript – 34%

Agent didn’t like
the writer’s next project – 31%

Couldn’t agree on
editorial direction – 25%

Communication
styles – 61%

Personality clash –
31%

Other – Many of
these responses included excessively slow turn-around time in reading
manuscripts, getting feedback to a writer, responding to emails, or putting manuscripts on submission. Also included: concerns about
the strength of the agent’s connections, agent not passing on feedback from
editors, or writer not wanting to stay with the agent when they made a big
career move (like to another agency).

QUESTION: How long were you with agent
before splitting up?

0-6 months – 5%

6 months – 1 year –
14%

1-2 years – 40%

More than 2 years –
42%

QUESTION: If you’ve gone on to get another
agent, how long did it take after your initial split?

0-6 months – 67%

6 months – 1 year –
13%

1-2 years – 15%

More than 2 years –
5%

Now, I’m throwing a
lot of info at you, but there’s so little out there on this topic that I want
to do it full justice. I know many writers who head into Breakup Station
despair of ever getting an agent again. They think they’re damaged goods
(actual wording I saw recently), they think the manuscript their agent subbed
is dead forever, they think they’ve missed their shot. I wanted to get an
agent’s perspective on receiving queries from writers who’ve been previously
agented, so I talked to Brent Taylor of Triada US Literary Agency. He was kind
enough to answer candidly. Querying writers should consider him—his manuscript wish list is
here.

Me: How does it affect your
consideration of a query when you see a writer has parted ways with a previous
agent?

Brent: I want to note upfront that
all of this is very much case-by-case. But for me, it sometimes works in the
writer's favor and I'm more forgiving of query mistakes/my initial hesitations
about the project if I know that this writer's work was "good enough"
for a different agent. Not all agents might feel that way, though. I'm usually
giving the writer the benefit of the doubt and assuming that the author-agent
split was amicable and because of stylistic incompatibilities.

But there are many other factors.
Sometimes I'm very friendly with the agent that the querying writer parted ways
with, and I might check in with them first just to maintain my professional
relationship. Agents talk. We're a talkative crowd.

Me: Would you sign a new client with
a manuscript that had previously been seen by editors?

Brent: It depends on how I feel about
the project and my vision. Every agent has different instincts, and I've
certainly seen submissions lists that differ drastically from ones I would
have come up with. So let's say you queried me with a middle grade novel and I
felt it was a perfect fit for the more traditionally literary imprints with
award-winning lists, and your previous agent had mostly submitted it to the
imprints I considered more on the commercial side -- then there's certainly
some wiggle room there. But I've also been in a position where I've had to say,
"Look, this is great, but all these editors that passed are the same
editors that I would have gone to." I know that's a completely unhelpful
answer.

Me: How many editors would be too
many for you to take on an already-subbed project?

Brent: I say at above ten editors,
your ship has sailed and you need to write a new book.

Thanks for your
time, Brent!

I hope this gives
some hope to those travelers passing through Breakup Station—or pondering a stop there. You aren’t alone. It will
be a temporary stop for you, but there are fellow travelers to meet and wisdom
to be gained. Much love on your journey.

EXCELLENT POST! I think it's always important to ask a potential agent, "Are you with me for my career or just this manuscript?" I also think communication is sooooo key! If you find yourself rarely getting emails responded to or calls returned, it is probably time to part ways. Sad, but true.

YOWWWZAAA! Joy, this post is AMAZING! Thanks for culling all this information and organizing it. And how fantastic you got an agent's perspective as well. This is a goldmine of info. I think it will give hope and relief to others who have had break ups with agents. It's also heartening to see that 67% got new agents within 6 months.

Most importantly, I think your post reinforces that in this publishing era there are many options for new life in our books and our writing and if one path doesn't work (not just with agents but all areas) the door is not closed permanently - another door truly does open.

Wow, thank you so much for this! It couldn't have come at a better time. I just left my agent last month and am back querying again. It's nice to know I'm not alone and that good things may be around the corner.

Thanks, Joy. Like Libby, I was signed before I had an agent and completely forgot about getting one. However, my editor left my publisher two books into a trilogy. My kind publisher did hire him to come and consult, but it was not the same.

Question: I was previously under contract with another agent, with whom I amicably split before the project was sent to any publishers (Our visions for the project just did not align...) We terminated the agreement. Then I began querying other agents. Am I obligated to tell them I was previously represented? It's a unique situation because it never went anywhere with the first agent.

I see no reason to tell another agent you were represented if the book was never submitted -- certainly not in a query, unless you want to. If an agent wants to talk to you on the phone, you might want to bring it up during a discussion of revisions, but it's up to you.

I've had two agents myself and I'm currently unagented. I'm open about that but at this point in my career, my first agent relationship, which did not lead to any sales, seems completely remote and irrelevant.

Interested to get others thoughts on this. I agree with Kell. If you're no longer under contract then you are under no obligation to disclose. That said, it speaks well to your work if you had representation in the past. If you parted in a bad way, maybe don't mention, but if it was amicable, I would see no reason not to.

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The authors of Project Mayhem do their best to provide accurate, witty, and sometimes manic information pertaining to all things middle grade. Any resemblance to anybody else's manic, witty, and accurate information is purely serendipitous. However, the views and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the individual authors, and do not necessarily reflect those of the other writers on this blog. Except, we all agree that reading Project Mayhem will brighten your day. Drop by mic.